I remember the great recession of 2008+. A quirky indicator, seen in retrospect, was the rapid shrinking of waiting lists to join golf clubs across the country. Go figure.
Now, with accurate federal government reporting of economic indicators in jeopardy, we need other indicators that are closer to the street and are easy to understand. I don’t know if organizations monitor the work of nonprofit organizations, but if there are, here are several economic indicators they can use through simple monthly survey sampling.
Changes in:
- Demand for food from food pantries and food banks
- Demand for shelter by the unhoused and numbers of urban encampments
- The use of emergency rooms for primary care
- The rate of uninsured patients needing critical care services
- Demand for behavioral health services
- Enrollment in community colleges
- Requests for legal aid
- Annual subscriptions and ticket sales to museums and the performing arts
- Memberships in YMCAs, JCCs, and other community health and service organizations
- Enrollment in independent K-12 schools
- The proportion of foundation and individual philanthropy to basic human services
I’m sure there are others. What have I missed?
No other sector of our economy is as close to the pulse of our society and economic well-being as the 3rd Sector. It may also be the easiest to measure accurately. Reviewing federal Form 990 works, but the time lag is too great to be of real-time value. This should be done retrospectively to validate this approach.
Google Trends
There is one real-time tool for measuring economic health that may reflect the experiences of nonprofits: Google search trends (https://trends.google.com/trends) for the phrases “food bank”, “hunger relief”, and “homeless”. These are measures of individuals with needs and public interest in these topics.
“food bank”
“hunger relief”
“homeless”
Help me out, is there an organization that is measuring some or all of these things?
Claude.ai has offered the following list of organizations that measure various nonprofit financial, transparency, and compliance issues. Still, none can be used in near real-time to measure the state of our economy in terms that regular people can understand.
Specialized Nonprofit Evaluators:
- Charity Navigator – Rates nonprofits on accountability and transparency, including data practices
- GuideStar/Candid – Provides transparency data and organizational profiles
- BBB Wise Giving Alliance – Evaluates charity accountability standards
Privacy-Focused Organizations:
- Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) – Tracks digital rights and privacy practices
- Privacy International – Global privacy advocacy and monitoring
- Mozilla Foundation – Publishes “*Privacy Not Included” buyer’s guides
Government Oversight:
- FTC – Enforces privacy regulations for all organizations
- State attorneys general – Monitor nonprofit compliance with privacy laws
Academic/Research:
- Pew Research Center – Studies digital privacy trends across sectors
- Various university research centers – Conduct nonprofit technology and privacy studies
Photo by Brooke Cagle
